Mary Harron Movies
Canadian writer and director Mary Harron first made an impact on the world of American independent cinema with her 1996 feature directorial debut I Shot Andy Warhol. The widely acclaimed film, which detailed the short, strange life of S.C.U.M Manifesto author Valerie Solanas, earned both an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Film and a Special Jury Award for star Lili Taylor at the 1996 Sundance Festival.The daughter of celebrated Canadian actor Don Harron, she was educated at Oxford University and began her career as a rock journalist. One of the founders of Punk magazine, the first publication dedicated solely to punk rock, Harron was the first writer to interview the Sex Pistols for an American publication. She also worked for a number of British publications, including New Musical Express, for which she wrote a history of the Velvet Underground, and Melody Maker, for which she wrote a detailed history of Andy Warhol and the Factory.
Harron began her film career as the director of a number of documentaries for BBC TV and Channel Four. She also made six short films about pop culture, including one entitled How to Make an Oliver Stone Movie. Following I Shot Andy Warhol, her acclaimed feature directorial debut, Harron began adapting (along with co-writer Guinevere Turner) Brett Easton Ellis' controversial novel American Psycho for the screen. From the beginning, the production was marked by controversy, due to both the novel's excessively violent content and the decision of Lions Gate Films (the film's studio) to cast Leonardo Di Caprio in the lead role of yuppie serial killer Patrick Bateman, thereby forcing Harron's first choice for the role, British actor Christian Bale, out of the production. Fortunately, the studio eventually backed off and Di Caprio opted not to do the film, allowing Bale to resume his portrayal of the character. However, the film's problems were not over -- shortly before its release it was slapped with a dreaded NC-17 rating by American censors who objected to a sex scene involving Bateman and two prostitutes. Harron was forced to cut the scene in order to secure an R rating, something that was understandably a source of displeasure for the director, as well as another example of the double standards employed by censors in their treatment of cinematic sex and violence. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 2006
Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), realizing that something sneaky was going on between Bill (Bill Paxton) and Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), has announced her desire to "bring a new soul" into the family. This enables her to manipulate the wives' schedule according to her menstrual cycle. But she's secretly taking birth control pills. Bill and Barb continue their affair. Barb confesses to Peg (Wendy Phillips), who disapproves. Bill obtains the state file on Roman's (Harry Dean Stanton) shady real-estate ventures. Bill visits Juniper Creek to attend the funeral of Frank's (Bruce Dern) first wife, planning to also meet with Roman. Bill is outraged to learn that Frank refuses to make Lois (Grace Zabriskie) his first wife, as he once promised, because, among other things, he thinks she tried to kill him. Bill tries to persuade Frank to change his mind. He also checks with Joey (Shawn Doyle) to make sure Joey's name won't appear on any of Roman's real-estate deals before going to Roman with a cash offer and a threat to expose him if he doesn't take the money. "God will have a humble people," Roman warns Bill. "Either we can choose to be humble, or we can be compelled." Meanwhile, back in civilization, Nicki creates a scene at Home Plus when she demands the "family discount" while buying a garbage disposal, and Ben (Douglas Smith) chastises Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) for inviting Pam (Audrey Wasilewski) over to watch a DVD. This episode was directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Gini Reticker and Lesli Klainberg direct the 74-minute documentary In the Company of Women, a production of the Independent Film Channel. The film offers an introduction to the major women of independent filmmaking, starting in the 1980s. It includes commentary from directors Allison Anders, Lisa Cholodenko, and Nicole Holofcener. Actresses Patricia Clarkson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Rosie Perez also offer insight and comments. In the Company of Women was shown in a special screening at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival before making its broadcast premiere on the Independent Film Channel. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allison Anders, Lisa Cholodenko, (more)
- 2003
This exhaustively researched cable-TV documentary traces the history of drug movies, from camp classics like Reefer Madness to more serious and sober examinations like Requiem for a Dream. Top-heavy with clips from such once-shocking groundbreakers as The Man With the Golden Arm, the "head" flicks of the 1960s and '70s (Easy Rider, the Cheech and Chong vehicles, et al.), the goofy dope-head comedies and the straightforward "wasted-teen" dramas of the '80s (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Drugstore Cowboy) and cautionary epics about the ruined lives of the rich and famous (The Doors) and international narcotics-financed corruption (Traffic), the film illustrates how the truth about the drug culture has been both accurately chronicled and pathetically misrepresented by Hollywood. Several actors, writers, and directors who have worked in films detailing drug use and abuse are interviewed. Assembled by Oscar-winning moviemaker Bruce Sinofsky, Hollywood High was originally telecast by the AMC cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sam Green and Bill Siegel's documentary about a radical group whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the U.S. government details a valuable chapter in the history of the '60s protest movement and leftism in America. The Weathermen were a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the driving forces behind the period's mass protests against social injustice and the Vietnam War. Frustrated by SDS's adherence to non-violent dissent, the Weathermen broke off and adopted a more combative approach. As the student protests ebbed in the 1970s, the group went underground and shifted tactics, embarking on a terrorist campaign against the U.S. government. For years, the Weather Underground evaded the authorities' grasp, even as it pulled off high-profile bombings against government targets. Their momentum petered out in the 1980s, as one by one the organization's members surrendered after years on the run. The Weather Underground uses extensive archival footage and revealing interviews with the surviving members to trace the group's evolution and place their actions in the context of the period's tumultuous events. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
- 1998
The homicide unit investigates the whipping and lynching of a wealthy white advertising executive in a historic black section of Baltimore. It turns out that the killing may have been payback for race-related crimes committed by the dead man's ancestor, a Civil War-era slavery advocate. Elsewhere, neither Pembleton (Andre Braugher) nor Gharty (Peter Gerety) can figure out why Bayliss (Kyle Secor), who has implicitly announced his homosexuality, would be interested in Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, (more)
Celebrated and vilified in equal measure, the pinup goddess Bettie Page inspired a legion of followers -- and an indecency scandal -- by appearing in a series of nude, sado-masochistic, and/or revealing magazine spreads in the 1950s. An era later, writer/director Mary Harron casts a knowing eye upon the woman who indirectly gave birth to modern pornography in the biopic The Notorious Bettie Page. As a teen, Page (Gretchen Mol) is a smart, plucky girl with ambitions beyond her Tennessee roots. Suffering varying degrees of abuse from her father, her first husband, and suitors of dubious virtue, Page makes her way to New York City, where an amateur photographer discovers her lounging on the beach. It isn't long before images of the shapely brunette reach Irving and Paula Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor), brother-and-sister entrepreneurs who publish illicit magazines dedicated primarily to men's fetishes. The casual nudist Page eventually finds herself acquiescing to their requests to don thigh-high boots, whips, and chains, which raise the ire of the smut-fearing senator Estes Kefauver (David Strathairn). The Notorious Bettie Page had its North American premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gretchen Mol, Christopher Bauer, (more)
Bret Easton Ellis' dark and violent satire of America in the 1980s is brought to the screen in this unsettling drama with black comic overtones. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), the son of a wealthy Wall Street financier, is pursuing his own lucrative career with his father's firm. Bateman is the prototypical yuppie, obsessed with success, fashion, and style. He is also a serial killer who murders, rapes, and mutilates both strangers and acquaintances without provocation or reason. Donald Kimble (Willem Dafoe), a police detective, questions Bateman about the disappearance of Paul Allen (Jared Leto), whom Patrick murdered several days earlier. As Kimble stays on Bateman's trail, Bateman's mask of studied, distant cool begins to fall apart. American Psycho also features Reese Witherspoon as Bateman's girlfriend, as well as Samantha Mathis, Chloe Sevigny, and Guinevere Turner; the latter also co-authored the screenplay. Controversy followed the production from the start, when speculation that Leonardo Di Caprio would play Bateman sparked concerns that he would lure preteens to an R-rated movie. Di Caprio soon bowed out of the project, and original leading man Bale was reinstated. Later, a group of Toronto residents attempted to block filming in that city after Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo claimed that Ellis' novel inspired his murder spree. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, (more)
The true story of Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who became notorious after shooting art world icon Andy Warhol, is portrayed in this fact-based drama. In an attempt to present a fair assessment of her actions, writer-director Mary Harron focuses on Solanas' troubled life, from her childhood as an abuse victim to her life as teenage prostitute in New York City. These experiences left Solanas (played by Lili Taylor) deeply scarred, contributing to a hatred of men that later found full flower in her famous "SCUM Manifesto," an extremist tract calling for the establishment of a "Society for Cutting Up Men." Deeply troubled, she nevertheless briefly finds hope after befriending young transvestite Candy Darling (played by Stephen Dorff) and discovering herself on the fringes of the wild, colorful world surrounding the eccentric Warhol. She becomes obsessed with the idea that Warhol's support could change her life, only to become violently enraged when the artist and his friends begin to turn away from her. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, (more)
- 2005
- NR
In a rare and refreshing reversal of roles, filmmakers put the powerful Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA for short) under the microscope for inspection in Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick's incisive look at stateside cinema's most notorious non-censoring censors. Compelled by the staggering amount of power that the MPAA ratings board wields, the filmmaker seeks out the true identities of the anonymous elite who control what films make it to the multiplex. He even goes so far as to hire a private investigator to stake out MPAA headquarters and expose Hollywood's best-kept secret. Along the way, Dick speaks with numerous filmmakers whose careers have been affected by the seemingly random and sexual-content obsessed judgments of the MPAA, including John Waters, Mary Harron, Darren Aranofsky, Wayne Kramer, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, and Atom Egoyan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kimberly Peirce, Alison Andres, (more)
